1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for producing frozen confections of the type usually made from ice cream or water ice, and more particularly, the present invention concerns an apparatus for making such frozen confections in which the frozen portion of the confection is in the form of a block from which a stick or handle projects.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One type of apparatus for producing frozen stick confections includes a plurality of removable mold bars or strips and an endless chain conveyor for indexing the mold strips in closely spaced arrangement through a brine tank to freeze confection material that has been deposited in mold cups depending from and integrally formed in the mold strips. After the confection material is partially frozen, sticks are inserted therein to project upwardly from the mold strips. After the confection material is completely frozen, the mold strips are lifted out of the brine tank by the endless chain conveyor and are moved under an extractor. At the extractor station, the mold cups are heated to permit the frozen confections to be separated therefrom. The sticks projecting from the frozen confections are then grasped and pulled upwardly to simultaneously extract the frozen confections from a row of mold cups in a mold strip. Thereafter, the mold strips are conveyed under the brine tank with the mold cups facing downwardly. While the strips are so inverted, hot water is sprayed into the mold cups to clean any confection material from the mold cups that was not removed by the extractor. An example of such type of confection producing apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,031,978 to M. B. Rasmusson.
Another type of prior art frozen confection producing machine includes a relatively massive, flat annular mold member that includes a plurality of rows of mold cups which extend radially of the mold member. It should be noted that the annular mold member may be comprised of annular sectors rather than being unitary. This type of frozen confection producing apparatus further includes an annular brine tank through which the mold cups are conveyed by rotating the mold member about its axis. A confection filler is disposed at one end of the brine tank to successively deposit confection material into a radially extending row of mold cups, and an extractor device is provided for removing frozen confections from the cups after the row has been rotated through the brine tank. A stick inserter is mounted along the arcuate path between the filler and extractor. An example of this rotary type of frozen confection producing apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,791,890 to O. G. Hoeyer.
A major problem associated with the linear type of frozen confection producing apparatus is that a substantial portion of the rows of mold cups are not in active use. That is to say, there are rows of mold cups that are empty and thus out of active use during that part of their path of travel that extends between the extractor station and the filler station. In the endless chain type of apparatus of the aforementioned Rasmusson patent, approximately 60% of the mold strips are positioned between the extractor and filler stations and therefore 60% of the mold strips are out of active use (with most of such mold strips being contained in the lower reach of the conveyor that extends below the brine tank). Even in the rotary apparatus, some rows of mold cups will be out of active use at any time since a portion of the circular path of travel of the mold cups occurs beneath the extraction device. Since the mold members are typically fabricated from stainless steel, the mold members comprise a major portion of the total cost of the confection producing apparatus, and thus any measure which would maximize the number of molds in active use will be seen to be desirable.
A problem particularly associated with the rotary frozen confection producing apparatus is that an operator is usually provided to inspect the mold cups downstream of the extraction station and to manually remove any substantial amount of confection material that may be left in the mold cups, particularly whole frozen confections. It will be understood that if the extractor fails to remove a frozen confection from a mold cup, then unless such missed confection or product is removed by the operator, the filler will deposit new confection material into such cup so that it overflows the cup. It is further noted that there is always a possibility that the stick inserter will fail to insert a stick; accordingly, the extractor will fail to remove the stickless confection due to such failure of the stick inserter. In view of such possibilities of extractor failure, an operator is routinely provided to oversee the operation of the rotary type of confection producing machine.
In contrast, the confection producing apparatus of the Rasmusson U.S. Pat. No. 3,031,978 eliminates the need for such an operator because all of the mold strips are automatically and invariably inverted and cleaned as they are returned from the extractor station to the filler station. Such cleaning is sufficient to remove any missed confection that is not extracted from a mold cup.
The automatic cleaning of all mold strips is, however, not always desirable. In the extraction of frozen confections from the mold cups, hot water is usually sprayed against the outside surface of the mold cups to melt the outer surface layer of the confection to permit the frozen confection to be extracted (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,895 to J. S. Brown). A small amount of confection material will thus be routinely left in the mold cups; unless the mold cups are inverted, such minor residual material will be combined with the next batches of confection material deposited in the cups. Such minor amount of molten material is economically significant when considered in the course of producing thousands of confections.